The countries concerned "may be able to have another round of six-party talks before very long. Perhaps even this month of February," Kelly said after he arrived at Incheon Airport for talks with South Korean officials.

He said he was "mildly optimistic" of the prospect for the new talks.

Kelly is to meet his South Korean counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Su-Hyuck, later in the day.

He will meet Foreign Minster Ban Ki-Moon and Unification Minister Jeong Se-Hyun Monday before going to Japan, where the envoy will link up with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage for a US-Japan strategic dialogue.

The United States confers closely with Japan and South Korea on North Korea policy, as part of cooperation which has tightened since the nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002.

The first round of six-nation talks, also taking in North Korea, Russia and China, made little headway in Beijing in August.

Washington and Seoul hope a second round will take place as soon as next month.

The United States wants verifiable pledges by North Korea to eliminate its alleged uranium enrichment program, plutonium reprocessing and existing atomic weapons.

Pyongyang showed an unofficial US delegation in early January what it said was plutonium but rejected US accounts of a 2002 meeting in which North Korea admitted to a uranium program.

It offered recently to freeze its nuclear weapons drive in return for concessions, including an end to US sanctions and a resumption of energy assistance.

Ban, however, described the offer as "not appropriate" and urged North Korea to dismantle "all its nuclear programs including high enrichment of uranium, completely, verifiably and irreversibly."

"It is not appropriate at the current stage for North Korea to demand such concessions as a precondition," the minister told Yonhap news agency in Manila.

"A nuclear freeze is the first step in a nuclear dismantlement. A verification means an inspection so nuclear inspections should follow," he added.

US and South Korean officials have warned that North Korea has fallen short of meeting international calls for a resolution to the crisis.

During his trip to China last week, Armitage said North Korea held the key to when new talks could take place on the crisis, while the regime's suspicious attitude posed an obstacle.

"On the North Korean side there's a great deal of suspicion about what we're all about, and we have to overcome that," he said.

WAR.WIRE